" 23 NBA players made $15 million or more during the 2014-2015 season, with eight pulling down $20 million or more. Typically, those are the massive salaries devoted to the NBA's elite players, but many players are still millionaires even if they are riding the bench"

The average amount of money made by a player in the NBA is 5.15 million dollars, quoted from INB times.

Sports are a huge part of our history, and really the whole worlds history, but does that give the world to overpay them. Lets say I have 10 million dollars I just made from throwing a ball in a net. I would be a greedy rat with all that money, but We should give at least give a tenth of 10 million dollars to our under payed police, firefighters, active Military and veterans only to name some big ones.

God its like were blocking the people who deserve money who do so much, like risking they're life every day for us, greedy nasty pigs called Americans, and bread filled skinny bony dogs.

I would like to thank my opponent in engaging in this debate. I hope that this will go well.

Many people would like to argue that the amounts of money that athletes make are exceptional, at least they are at first glance. Now the main question here is that although these athletes are exceptionally talented at what they do, does that warrant millions and millions of dollars?

I would like to begin by considering the amount of money that professional players bring to their respective sports through merchandise sales, ticket revenue, and television broadcasts. They easily bring more profit to their teams and their overall sport than they themselves could ever make. Without their presence on the court or field, fans wouldn"t flock in such high numbers to see a single game and would refuse to spend huge amounts of cash on team merchandise and memorabilia. Many places in the world exist In a free market economy, where people have a choice to buy whatever they can afford. As we all know, Americans spend an extensive amount of money on sporting events and merchandise annually. Since this is the case, star players are really getting paid exactly what they are worth.

Professional athletes who develop their talents and skills to a higher level than their peers will naturally demand a higher compensation. This should be a fact that won't surprise anyone; if someone does a better job at something than anyone else, that person is going to get paid significantly better. This is true for almost any job, and the world of sports is no exception. The best players get the best salaries. Because fans are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars to be entertained by people who can do something worlds better than the majority, professional athletes deserve to be compensated accordingly. Their abilities and talents are rare and highly developed, requiring countless hours of training and practice. This isn"t just a hobby to them as it is to most of us. To them, It"s their job. If a player is the best the sport has to offer, then he or she is deserving of that incredible salary that they earn at every game.

Another point to consider is that most athletes do not play as many years as we might expect, below are statistics for the general span of time that a professional player with play a single sport:

Baseball: 5 and a half years.

Basketball: 5 years.

Football: 3 years.

Now, taking into consideration the number of working years that most Americans have, being 40-45, this working time frame is incredibly short. While a majority of us are bringing home much smaller paychecks, we also tend to bring home FAR more than any professional athlete ever would. Professional sports tend to be so demanding that after only a few years many athletes are unable to compete any longer. Whereas most people are able to use their years of experience to their advantage in their job, professional athletes get replaced by younger, uninjured players. Considering the short span of most professional athletes" careers, they essentially need to have the ability to earn their lifetime salary over the course of only a couple of years.

So let me start off by saying our own president earns a yearly salary of $400,000, and he runs our country, while the athletes just provide amusement. Don't get me wrong sports are a huge part of world culture, but paying an athlete $5 million for a single year is just overpriced. There are doctors who save lives every day and do not make anything close to that amount. Not too mention active military forces, retired veterans in need of support, police officers and firemen only to name a few big ones.

Lets say I made a $100,000 off the Superbowl, don't you think america could give at least a tenth of $100,000, which is only ten grand to support some of our hardest working people america in there minute pay cut

I would like to begin by pointing out that pro, you have not contributed anything new to the debate, simply re-iterating points in your first argument which I had already discussed earlier.

Now, I want to draw attention to the fact that, as a society, we are abysmal when it comes to understanding how money works. Generally speaking, people tend to be very short term thinkers, which is why we tend to spend money in the moment with little regard for the financial consequences. We spend today rather than save for tomorrow and rarely consider how this will affect us in the future. In this regard, professional athletes are no different than the rest of us. This is one reason, amounts a variety of other reasons as to why most professional athletes end up broke just a few years after they end their careers.

When you think about professional athletes, you are focusing too much about the things that spend their money on, things like fancy cars, expensive parties, flashy jewelry, and lavish houses. It"s true that athletes can afford just about anything they want during their earning years, and we all know about the extravagant lifestyles many of them choose to lead. But the fact is that for all their money, they are grossly under-exposed to wise financial counsel. We tend to judge athletes for their financial indiscretions and luxurious lifestyles, however I would like to take some time to urge you to consider: If you were given your lifetime salary within the span of just a few years, how disciplined would you be with that income? Would you go spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxurious cars and vacations, or would you recognize that your money had to last the rest of your life and invest it wisely?

Now consider: How wisely are you handling the money you actually do make? Are you spending every dime you make eating out and buying new cars and toys, or are you planning for your future? When you come to the end of your working career, will you be financially solid or broke?

The primary difference between average people and professional athletes is that many of the mistakes of athletes are put under the microscope of public scrutiny. This automatically creates the argument that professional athletes irresponsibly squander their vast fortunes. But if you were to examine the way that regular people handle their finances, you"d find that many of us are just as guilty of squandering our resources.

There is also a point that can be made in respect to the way they are paid. Like I highlighted before, professional athletes earn a majority of their money from people who purchase merchandise and attend events and games. Generally speaking, the better you play, the more people want to watch you play, and sport companies recognize this, and therefore pay their popular players significant sums of money from earnings to ensure that they do not decide to change teams. All in all, how much athletes earn really comes down to how much WE are willing to pay them. The reason why the president or anyone in highly important jobs may not earn as much money in such a short span of time is because we choose to spend millions of dollars on sports, while we don't choose to actively pay to watch the president engage in debates. The entertainment industry is highly valued in this day and age, and when people are willing to spend such excessive amounts to support the lifestyles that athletes have, although perhaps they earn more money than they should, the money that they earn is not unjustified, and comes right out of your pocket every time you show up for a game.

Tell me this , would you say people in the military police, firefighters etc only deserve 30,000 dollars yearly average for defending our country and saving lives daily. I don't think lets say Lebron James, he make 20 million dollars yearly. You don't think some of that money, not saying were taking it from these athletes. We would just but lowering they're pay to lets say 18 million, but those are over or under calculated, so I would be contradicting myself in a way.

Your argument is invalid to the topic. It isn't the job of the atheletes to pay Americas working force. Whether or not they should donate their money is completely irrelevant to the topic question. You have continuously failed to provide an argument that supports your point, and nearly came up with examples of what they should do with the money they earn. This debate on wether or not athletes are overpaid, which I would argue only one of us really debated, is completely irrelevant to the points you put forward, nor have you came up with any rebuttals to my points.